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Integrated Estimating and Pricing Proposal Software

Looking for software tools to help manage your proposal estimating and pricing process? There are several commercial off the shelf (COTS) options available, but which one is right for your specific needs? When evaluating your business requirements, and how those software tools can help improve the proposal process, consider the product’s ease of use and return on investment (ROI). The first step is to ask the following questions:

• What can make an immediate difference for proposal teams? • What can help proposal teams create a credible proposal response with less time and effort?

ProjStream’s BOEMax was designed with you and your proposal teams in mind. With BOEMax your proposal teams can leverage a central database with built-in workflow to organize the data, create a library of reusable proposal components, and manage the entire proposal process. Working together, the various functional and technical proposal team members can leverage the same source data for:

Planning

Proposal teams can build or import the WBS into BOEMax for a rapid start. Using the statement of work (SOW) parsing utility, proposal teams can quickly map the SOW requirements to the WBS. This utility eliminates time-consuming copying and pasting. The WBS and SOW provide the framework proposal teams can use to determine the lower level tasks and resources required to complete the work.

The WBS also provides the framework for creating proposal team workflows. A proposal manager can route specific work elements to named proposal team members to track the development, review, and approval of the proposal content in a single database. Proposal teams have complete visibility into where things are in the proposal process with automatic version traceability.

Integrated Scheduling, Estimating and Pricing

Some tools treat estimating and pricing as separate modules. That means proposal teams spend time exporting and importing data between modules. BOEMax was designed to do both. In one step, proposal teams can create data-driven cost estimates and automatically price the data.

Reusable components save time for proposal teams and increase the quality of the estimate while providing reliable source data used to substantiate tasks, task durations, and resource requirements. Proposal teams can draw from historical data used for other proposal estimates or actual costs stored in BOEMax. Proposal teams can also take advantage of a process library of templates in BOEMax. These templates are set up to capture the cost estimate relationships between labor and material costs for a given task including quantities and bill of material (BOM) information. Proposal teams can build on an existing foundation instead of creating something from scratch.

BOEMax integrates bi-directionally with scheduling tools so proposal teams can include the schedulers in the cost estimating process. A network model of the planned sequence of activities with resource requirements that is shared with BOEMax makes it easy for proposal teams to create their time-phased cost estimates. Proposal teams can quickly reprice their cost estimates as tasks shift left or right in the proposed project timeline. Leveraging bi-directional integration ensures the schedule and cost estimate data are always in sync. The proposal teams don’t waste time validating the data.

Proposal teams can enter their basis of estimate (BOE) text and related documentation directly into BOEMax without having to purchase add-on utilities to interface with Microsoft Word. With BOEMax, proposal teams can easily review and validate their BOE details in a central database using a single tool with rich-text capabilities built-in to confirm the cost estimate makes sense.

Scenario Analysis

Need to compare various estimating or pricing scenarios to determine the best strategy to win the business? Proposal teams can save different project versions in BOEMax for what-if analysis, apply different pricing strategies, or evaluate different approaches such as make or buy. With documented, fact-based information, proposal teams can produce their best and final proposal schedule and cost estimate with confidence.

Standardized Reporting

Using built-in reporting functions, proposal teams can quickly produce standard BOE or cost summary reports as well as ad-hoc reports from the BOEMax central database. With fully traceable data, proposal teams can demonstrate they have captured the necessary facts, data, and rationale to produce a credible cost estimate internal management and the customer can verify.

Interested in learning more about how BOEMax can help you manage your proposal process and simplify life for your proposal teams? Call or schedule a demo of BOEMax today.

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Note: MS Project™ and Microsoft® are trademarks of Microsoft. Oracle® and Primavera are trademarks of Oracle. SAP® is a trademark of SAP. ProPricer™ is a trademark of Executive Business Services Inc. Cobra is a trademark of Deltek Inc.

ProjStream Software meets DCMA and DCAA compliance standards related to the DFARS contractor business systems in the areas of Estimating and Earned Value.